Rethinking African Youth

Commentary by Mvemba Phezo Dizolele

Published September 23, 2024

This commentary is the first installment of a new column from the Africa Program called the Dizolele Brief, which connects the dots between seemingly disparate events and developments in Africa. A version of this essay was originally published in the African Youth Survey in August 2024.

Africa is young and female. Despite the dominant Western discourse that focuses on the continent's vast endowment in natural resources, from rare earth minerals to rivers and forests, Africa's most crucial resource is its population of 1.4 billion. With a median age of 19 and 70 percent of Africans being under the age of 30, youth is a fundamental attribute of this population.

Driven by high fertility rates and declining child mortality, these statistics make Africa the world's youngest continent. The same statistics also project that by 2050, two decades from now, more than one in four humans will be African. The continent's demographics, coupled with its natural and mineral resources, ensure Africa's indispensability to the world's future.

To be sure, the continent's prominent role is not new. In the past 500 years, no major revolution has happened without Africa's contribution. Whether discussing the revolution of the spice trade, the ensuing exploration and development of the New World, the Industrial Revolution, the revolution of nuclear warfare, or the digital revolution, Africa has always played a significant role.

Africa is not a country. In Botswana, Kenya, and Angola, the median ages are 23, 19, and 16, respectively. Let's look at other references in the United States, China, and the European Union. The median age in the United States and China is 38 years. In Germany, the epitome of Europe's socioeconomic progress, the median age is 45 years. In 2023, the median age in the European Union was 44. These numbers reflect on average a 25-30 year gap between Africans and their European neighbors.

Thus, Africa has much to offer the world, and it is time for European policymakers to reconsider their relations with Africa.

As Germany and its peers in Europe continue to age, they cannot afford to pursue their current policies toward Africa. For instance, to stem the inflow of Africans, Europe has militarized its immigration posture and migration approach. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has effectively moved Europe's southern border to the Sahel.

For Africans living in migration frontline communities, their first contact with European migration policy is through Spain's Guardia Civil and Policía Nacional, or Italy's Carabinieri. That interaction is often antagonistic. The communities see these security organizations as neo-colonial and abusing their freedom of movement as citizens of the Economic Organization of West African States. Furthermore, getting a visa to any of the Schengen countries, which are European nations that have abolished passport control at their mutual borders, or the United States is a torturous experience regardless of socioeconomic class, whether you are a boda-boda motorcycle taxi operator in Nairobi or a mining engineer in Kolwezi. A consequence of this policy is that many Africans travel to Latin America, through the treacherous Darién Gap, to the United States. In the end, neither Europe nor the United States is insulated from Africa's demographics. Immigration policy failures have been laid in the open on all sides of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, some of Frontex's target countries, such as Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, have severed their security cooperation with the European Union, which has exposed the limitations of the militarized approach. It has always been clear to informed analysts and Africa watchers that the militarization of immigration is counterproductive. It provides a false sense of security to Europeans and breeds resentment among Africans.

It's time to find Pareto-optimal solutions that bridge the demand and supply pressures between Europe and Africa. The aging European Union will need to replenish its labor force with a steady influx of workers. With the world's ever-changing dynamics, the European Union certainly will need security in its many forms-such as labor, food, defense, and technology. Europeans will also need to preserve their cultures, which requires an infusion of creativity and talent in the sciences, technology, and arts. Given its young demographics, Africa is well positioned to meet Europe's needs, at least in principle.

France is a telling case study. The strong showing of the extreme political right in the 2024 legislative election reflects longstanding public discontent. Segments of French society have been unhappy with the government's failure to meet citizens' socioeconomic expectations. The political right's partisans blame this failure on immigration from Africa and fear their culture will disappear.

The irony of the argument from France's political right, however, is that in the current dynamic global context, French culture owes its survival in no small part to Africans. More than half of the world's 300 million French speakers are Africans, living in 24 African countries. Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is the world's largest French-speaking city, and the DRC is the world's largest francophone country. Without the Africans' attachment to the language, which is the foundation of French culture, French's influence would sharply decline. This has been evident through the strong presence of African youth, immigrants, or first-generation French-born in academia, sports, music, the armed forces, and other sectors throughout France. This is a direct result of steady and longstanding legal and illegal immigration. Simply put, the future of France, and Europe, is inextricably tied to Africa.

Beyond the political and nationalist discourse, it is clear that the world economic system that failed the disgruntled French and other Europeans has also failed African youth. Different waves of African youth have been at the forefront of change for decades. The youth have mobilized against colonization and dictatorship. They fought against Bretton Woods institutions' inequitable policies, such as the structural adjustment programs, and for better governance at home and abroad. They have denied would-be dictators their anti-constitutional ambitions.

The days when one wondered whether African youth were serious and committed to change are long gone. It is getting increasingly difficult to ignore their demands for change as youth movements have blossomed all over the continent. The long catalog of these protests attests to the vibrant state of youth engagement across the continent. These include Kenya's #RejectFinanceBill2024, Nigeria's #EndBadGovernance, Senegal's Y'en a Marre, Burkina Faso's Balai Citoyen, the Democratic Republic of Congo's LUCHA, Zimbabwe's #ThisFlag in Zimbabwe, and South Africa's #FeesMustFall.

Youth, civic, and political engagement is an important part of socioeconomic and political development in Africa. As digital technology expands across Africa, the youth will continue to find better and more effective ways to express their demands for equitable governance at home and abroad. They will continue to hold their leaders and their foreign backers accountable and do not need permission to assert their rights. Leaders will ignore them at their own peril.

Policy-wise, this reality means that Europe needs to start looking at Africa differently.

European policymakers, members of the European Parliament, and politicians should view African youth through a new lens, not one that buttresses walls around "Fortress Europe." They should consider African youth as their constituents and not see them as a threat. This change in thinking would require both pragmatism and creativity.

For example, a partnership between the EU and African countries (such as through schools and professional organizations) could set up a selective apprentice program that grants two to three-year visas to thousands of qualified African youths to learn a trade in farming in Spain, in the automotive industry in Germany, or in the telecommunications industry in Finland. After the apprenticeship, they could either be placed in a corresponding business in Africa for further professional experience or supported financially through a special fund to start their own business in their home countries. In the initial stages of the program, one should expect some awardees to disappear into Europe and not return home. But as the program yields results, the benefits of a good-paying job and dignity at home would outweigh the risks and embarrassment of an illegal, clandestine life in Europe.

Two truths should be acknowledged: migration is a natural yearning, and, at the same time, the default human stance is to stay and improve one's condition where one finds oneself. Today, migration is primarily intra-African. Most immigrants move within Africa. This data point should be the baseline of a mutually beneficial immigration policy.

Mvemba Phezo Dizolele is a senior fellow and director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

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